Situation Normal: All Fouled Up
by Apapazukamori
Summary: Yuuri thought he was being careful, but everyone had started staring. He realized soon enough that most things couldn't be avoided forever. Yuuri/Murata, Yuuri/Wolfram. Written as a companion piece to The Situation on the Ground.


**Situation Normal, All Fouled Up**

He was going to be in so much trouble when he got back.

Ao galloped hard across the plain; a single streak of black amid tall, golden grass. Yuuri let him run as far and fast as he wanted, just holding on, feeling the wind whip at his face. Two years didn't seem like such a long time, especially with the intermittent absences, but a bond had developed between horse and rider. And some would be tempted to say the horse had more sense. Right now, as much as he hated to admit it, Yuuri would probably agree.

They would have noticed by now that he was gone.

Reckless. Immature. Willful. And so, so selfish. That above all else.

He had heard the whispers. Everyone blamed Murata. Even when Yuuri had opened his big mouth and admitted to making the first move, he hadn't been able to snatch all the fault. It infuriated him. He wanted to rail, rant and rave about how unfair they were all being.

But Gwendal had seen fit to point out that for the last two years, Yuuri had been swearing up and down he wasn't interested in boys.

And Yuuri had no good answer to give. He still didn't. Besides, any answer would basically be telling Gwendal and Conrad their little brother wasn't good enough. Telling Lady Cheri her son wasn't good enough. He didn't think that, of course; but that's how it'd sound. Wolfram was Wolfram, and Murata was just... Murata. It seemed simple, until he tried to explain it.

So he'd wimped out and avoided the issue as much as he could. Murata withdrew to the Shinou's temple, the last place Yuuri wanted him to be. And Yuuri begged everyone not to say anything to the youngest prince just yet.

In retrospect, it was a good thing no one listened to him.

The next time he'd seen Wolfram, he knew. He hoped it had been Conrad; Gwendal could be kind of rough at times.

He hoped it had been Conrad, because Conrad would have tried to explain it in a way that didn't make Yuuri out to be the total jerk he really was.

Conrad had looked so disappointed.

Eventually, Ao got tired of running. Now also feeling guilty for tiring his horse out, Yuuri turned him around and began the long walk back to Blood Pledge Castle. The sun was sinking below the tree line as they passed the road leading to the Shinou's temple; Yuuri couldn't help looking toward it, scanning the windows and ramparts for a familiar reflection of light on glass. He didn't see it, of course. When Murata hid, no one could find him. Not even Yuuri.

But he knew his friend understood, even if no one else did. That was probably the only thing Yuuri did know for sure. And he couldn't even describe how grateful he was. But then, he didn't need to.

The castle courtyard was swarming in total chaos when he returned. His heart sank a little further. He hadn't even taken Morgif with him when he'd left.

"Your Majesty!"

Ao plodded his way from the portcullis toward the stables, passing through a sea of completely silent, staring faces. Yuuri swallowed and sort of wanted to shrivel up and die before his advisors ran from the castle steps to intercept him. Maybe he could grab the stall next to Ao's for the night. Maybe he could throw himself in the dungeon, or something.

Maybe he could turn Ao right around and storm the temple, grabbing Murata and escaping to Earth, where all the trouble had started.

His heart sank still further at the thought of needing to escape from his own kingdom.

In the end, he was still mulling over possible options when Conrad caught Ao's bridle and looked up at him with a hard, angry expression on his face. "Yuuri--" Yuuri flinched. "Don't _ever_ do that again."

Yuuri glanced down at his hands, tangled in Ao's reins. "Sorry, Conrad," he said quietly. Keeping his eyes averted, he dismounted and stood awkwardly as someone led his horse away, muttering about bursitis and promising lots of oats and apples and a good long brushing to make up for the abuse. Conrad stood directly behind his left shoulder, close enough that Yuuri could hear his breathing above the slow resumption of activity in the courtyard. Any other time, the older man's presence would be a comfort. Now it was stifling. Another twist of guilt to be reminded that whatever Conrad's personal feelings, he did what was expected of him.

"Your Majesty--"

"I'm sorry, Conrad," Yuuri said again, fidgeting and looking at his shoes. "Really, really sorry."

He felt Conrad's hand settle on his shoulder. "We should go inside," he said, his tone not unkind. "Wolfram wants to talk to you."

"Now?" His voice even sounded pitiful and Yuuri cringed. Any other issue would have been simple to deal with. Yuuri was no stranger to anger, righteous indignation, explosive bouts of temper or equally powerful bursts of joy. Even the cold fury that brought out his more destructive abilities had become somewhat familiar to him. Cowering in dread and shame was new. He hated it. And he hated that his introduction to it had to be so damn public.

Conrad's hand tightened on his shoulder, but the man made no move to try and get Yuuri to look at him. "I'm afraid so." He gave Yuuri a gentle nudge forward, and then fell into step behind him, still very close. Reassurance or preventing another escape? Doubts had been sowed in his thoughts and Yuuri half wished he could go back to three or four weeks ago and undo everything.

Gwendal met them at the castle steps, accompanied by Lady Cheri, Gunter and-- "Murata?"

Gwendal eyed him, stern as ever, but with deeper lines on his brow. "His Highness was asked to come to the castle when we couldn't find you." Gwendal paused, as if he expected Yuuri to grasp some unspoken meaning. For his own part, the subject of the conversation chose to keep quiet and unreadable. Sometimes Yuuri envied his friend's ability to almost disappear in plain sight.

Yuuri looked between them, then over at the others, and frowned as an unpleasant thought occurred to him. "You..." he gritted his teeth. "You didn't need to do that."

"Start exercising some forethought, and we won't need to again." Apparently satisfied the situation was under control, Gwendal turned sharply on his heel and entered the castle; in his wake, Yuuri wrestled with a retort, stung by the rebuke, but found he had none. All he had was one more monkey with a death grip on his back. He glanced at Murata, who gave him a very faint, sympathetic smile.

Yuuri also hated that he was so far gone that that tiny gesture made him feel so much better.

Conrad gave him another little nudge. "Inside, Your Majesty."

Tugging on his collar, Yuuri went.

The others followed for a time, then just Lady Cheri and Murata. Conrad escorted him to a sitting room and knocked on the door. The blond opened it, face flushed but with dry eyes. "Come in," he said, stepping aside so Yuuri could enter. Wolfram remained by the door. Yuuri turned to see him looking at Murata. "You, too," he added, though it seemed as though he was speaking through his teeth. "If you'd like."

Murata didn't spare a glance for Yuuri before shaking his head. "I appreciate the gesture, Sir von Bielefeld," he said softly, perfectly formal as always. "But perhaps it would be better if you and Shibuya talked things over first."

Yuuri understood, however, that didn't stop him from really, really wanting Murata to stay. An audience might lessen the chance of some...thing getting set on fire.

Wolfram snorted and then shrugged. "Fine." He stepped back and closed the door probably harder than necessary. Although, maybe it had been necessary for Wolfram. Still, Yuuri took a few steps back, giving Wolfram a wide berth as the blond passed and dropped into one of the two armchairs set in front of the fireplace. If Murata had joined them, Yuuri reflected, one of them would have had to stand. As it was, Yuuri stayed where he stood, telling himself it was only because he didn't want to be close to the fire when he didn't exactly know the extent of Wolfram's mood.

Several long moments of silence passed with Wolfram staring into the fire and Yuuri fidgeting. Glancing around the room, he didn't know what exactly he expected the state of it to be, but he didn't expect it to be in perfect order. No signs of the blond's tell-tale temper anywhere. He began to wonder where they had taken Wolfram to break the news. He wondered if Greta had been told anything, or what she'd heard. No matter what he might wish, even he wasn't dense enough to think his daughter didn't overhear Court and castle gossip. The more peaceful Shin Makoku became, the more of it there was to stumble upon.

And Yuuri had certainly handed them something worth chatting about.

Wolfram stirred, finally, and turned in the chair to look at him. "Conrad said you weren't going to tell me."

Yuuri's heart clenched. "Th, that's not true," he stammered.

The blond's green eyes took on a hard edge as he barked out a laugh. Yuuri winced at the sharp, angry sound. "Are you saying my brother lied to me in order to get my cheating fiance into trouble?!"

"No!" Yuuri felt himself start to panic. A typical reaction when Wolfram started haranguing him over their engagement, but worse now, since Wolfram finally had a reason to. "No, Conrad didn't lie... but that's not what I meant." Yuuri raked both hands through his hair and tried to calm down as a helplessness seeped into the vacuum the panic left. "I knew you were going to be mad..."

"'Mad' doesn't even _begin_ to describe it."

"It's just... when we got here, people just started staring. Conrad, Gunter, everyone..." Yuuri clenched his hands at the memory. "I wasn't even _doing_ anything! I thought I was being discrete."

Wolfram laughed again, the same sound, though tinged with something else. "_You?_"

Yuuri bristled. "I didn't _ask_ for this, okay?! I didn't wake up one morning and think 'hey, how can I let everyone down all at once and piss Wolfram off? That'll be fun!'"

"Well, what did you think?!"

"I didn't think!" Yuuri snapped, slightly unnerved as his outburst seemed to result in Wolfram calming down.

"No," the blond agreed. "You didn't."

The complete emptiness in Wolfram's voice snuffed all of Yuuri's anger right out. He gave up worrying about the immolation potential and sunk into the chair across from Wolfram. "I'm sorry," he said, for what seemed like the millionth time. "It just happened."

He saw the first shine of tears in Wolfram's eyes and transferred his gaze to their shoes. Wolfram sighed. "The engagement's off."

"What?" All the times he'd dreamed of hearing those words, and suddenly he didn't want to.

Wolfram blinked. "You don't think I'm going to sit here and _let_ you cheat on me."

"Well, no," Yuuri protested, though he realized after the words left his mouth that that was exactly what he was asking Wolfram to do. "But, isn't there some other way?"

Disbelief flickered across the blond's face, then vanished as his eyes narrowed. "What is he to you?"

Yuuri felt his heart stop. "W, what?" "Are you lovers? Have you managed to be _completely_ unfaithful?"

His heart kicked into double-time, accompanying a painful rush of blood to his face. "Wha--? No! No, nothing like that..." Yuuri fought down the urge to flail wildly.

"Then what the hell is it?!" Wolfram stood up, fists clenched. "You're not interested in men, except now you are. You don't want to be engaged, except you do, _and_ you want to dally with His Highness on the side!"

Yuuri held up both hands. "Wolfram, wait--"

"You can't have it both ways, Yuuri!" Wolfram's voice cracked a little, and Yuuri buried his head in his hands. "It's humiliating. It's _mortifying_. I won't have it."

"But, Greta..." Yuuri felt sick the instant he said it, knowing it was a desperate and really a pretty cheap shot, no matter how true it was. Clearly, he wasn't as upstanding as he always made himself out to be.

Wolfram's silence seemed to drown out everything else in the room. The fire popped and crackled mutely in the hearth. Yuuri glanced up to see Wolfram staring at him with a mixture of fury and grief. "Don't you dare," he breathed. "Not when you didn't think about her when you decided to string His Highness along as well."

"I am _not_--"

"Then what _are_ you doing?!" The fire popped very loudly and Yuuri suddenly feared he'd pushed Wolfram too far.

Yuuri's head dropped back into his hands. "I don't know."

"You had better damn well figure it out, then." Wolfram's voice was shaking, but Yuuri didn't have the courage to look back up. He saw the tips of the blond's boots move out of his area of vision.

"I'm going to take an indefinite leave of absence, Your Majesty." Yuuri hated hearing his title from people close to him, and Wolfram was no exception. But it hurt more now, and he kept his mouth shut. "I will come back, though."

Yuuri felt as if one of the monkeys had fallen off. He looked up hopefully; Wolfram's expression was blank. "When I come back, Yuuri, I need you to give me a reason why I should even _think_ about doing anything for you." The blond turned, then, and moved toward the door. He paused, though, before opening it, and looked back over his shoulder. "You know what hurt the most?" he asked, a sad smile working over his face.

Yuuri shook his head. "What?"

"You not telling me about this yourself."

The door closed quietly behind him.

Yuuri spent a long time sitting in front of the fire. Staring. Not thinking about anything at all, for fear of thinking about everything at once.

Sometime later, though Yuuri had no idea how long, a hand settled on his head and started to smooth his hair. He tensed at first, then recognized the scent settling around him. Lady Cheri. How she could stand beside him and offer comfort, Yuuri didn't know. Though, of all people, she might understand. Scary to think they had more than just their titles in common. Well, their titles, and their affection for a trio of men who did so much to make sure Yuuri was a good king.

A lump formed in his throat, and he lowered his head, out from under her hand. He heard a soft clucking of her tongue, and the hand returned. "You should rest, Your Majesty," she said gently. "It's been a long day."

Swallowing awkwardly, Yuuri risked a glance up. "Lady Cheri... how come you're here?"

She smiled sadly, and her green eyes reminded him so much of Wolfram's that he nearly looked away again. "Because you are." Her hand paused, just resting on the top of his head. "Everyone is worried, Your Majesty."

He did look away, then. Back toward the ashes where the fire had been. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone," he whispered.

"Now, now," Cheri cooed softly, resuming the hand over his hair. "I meant that they were worried about you, silly boy."

Yuuri snorted. "What else is new?"

She 'tsk'ed and patted his head. "Off to bed with you, Your Majesty." She stepped back. "Everything looks better in the morning, and you have someone... well, someone _almost_ as beautiful as Wolfram... waiting for you, tonight."

Murata hadn't gone back to the temple, then. When Yuuri looked up, Cheri was smiling a little. "Thank you, Lady Cheri."

She kissed her fingertips and waved them at him. "Good night, Your Majesty."

No one escorted him back to his rooms; he had no idea what reasoning to apply, so chose the safety of not assigning any meaning at all. Murata looked up when he entered; his friend was still fully clothed, still fully awake, leaning against the windowsill across the room. Yuuri hesitated as he closed the door behind him, his conversation with Wolfram ringing in his ears. The whole situation had seemed so much simpler on Earth; funny how he had felt more comfortable in a place where guys liking guys was taboo.

_What is he to you?_

The question terrified him. How far did you have to go with another guy before you really turned gay? He still liked girls, dammit; Flynn Gilbert was a knockout and if she weren't completely out of his league, he would have loved to find out if they could have something.

He didn't know if he liked _all_ guys. He just liked Murata. And what exactly did "like" mean, anyway?

"Hey, Shibuya?"

Yuuri's heart skipped a beat and he was startled out of his racing, gradually more and more circular thoughts. "Yeah?"

Murata smiled a little. "Welcome back."

Yuuri found himself grudgingly smiling in return, blushing a little as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Thanks."


End file.
